The purpose of this study is to acquaint the reader with certain scales, not merely as they are used to provide the theoretical "building stones" of all music, but as they have been used as actual scale passages in the piano music of two twentieth century composers. This is a study of the use of various scales in the piano music of Debussy and Ravel. A list of the piano music of these composers which was available for the present investigation is given in the Bibliography. A careful analysis of the music has been necessary in order to determine: First, the types of scales the composer uses; second, the interpretation of the scale in its context; third, the ways in which some scale passages are employed to help project musical thought in the composition; and fourth, the frequency of occurrence of types of scale passages.

The traditional major-minor tonality and the means for its establishment have been developed and used for the last four centuries, until all the possibilities of musical ideas within the given frame of tonal coherence seem now to be exhausted. Today we see a violent change, affecting the basic vocabulary of music as well as musical grammar and syntax. The possibilities of the major-minor tonality seem to be overgrown and appear to be no longer sufficiently flexible to serve the creative spirit of present-day music as basis for musical expression. Thoughtful composers and theorists, however much they may differ in their background and in their attitude toward different traits of modern music, agree in the realization that musical composition is at a crucial point of development all of over the world.

When a particular phase of music theory is omitted from the contents of a treatise or textbook on that subject, the omission can usually be ascribed to one of two causes. Either the omitted phase is of little importance or it is not used in the music of the period on which the treatise or textbook is based. It is the purpose of this research study to discuss a particular phase of music theory that has been omitted or avoided by numerous counterpoint and theory textbook authors. The material in the contents of this work is based on a discussion of the melodic use of the augmented second in the music of the eighteenth century.

One of the difficulties most frequently encountered among music students is reading inadequacy. In this particular study we shall attempt to measure and increase the visual span of reading musical notation.